Monmouth Medical Center Hosts Mayors' Breakfast Meeting

10/27/2014

Mayors and council members from local towns including Red Bank, Oceanport, Eatontown, Little Silver and Long Branch recently paid a visit to Monmouth Medical Center to meet with the hospital's senior leadership, physicians, members of the Board of Trustees and employees.

Local officials began the visit with a quick meet and greet with Monmouth Medical Center's administrative and medical leadership and board of trustees, and then sat down over breakfast to discuss issues of importance to Monmouth Medical Center specifically, and health care, generally in New Jersey. The discussion focused on community needs and the importance of working together as partners to promote healthy communities.

"Each year, through our community health education efforts including health fairs, lectures, screenings and seminars, we reach out to more than 80,000 people in our surrounding communities," said Monmouth Medical Center President and Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Vozos, M.D., FACS. "We welcome the input of our community leaders as we work to strengthen the community by offering access to the very best in health care, close to home. I am so pleased to have had this opportunity to meet with members of our local governments and am hopeful that we have built upon a pathway to greater collaboration and partnerships with many of our local townships."

Welcoming comments were provided by Ron Riccio, chairman of the Monmouth Medical Center Board of Trustees and a panel of physicians provided updates on a wide range of topics, from emergency services to Ebola and Enterovirus. The physicians participating included Bill Downs, D.O., FACOEP, associate director of the Emergency Department, Mitchell Weiss, M.D., chairman of Radiation Oncology, and Margaret Fisher, M.D., chair of Pediatrics and medical director of The Unterberg Children's Hospital. Additionally, radiation oncologist Sang Sim, M.D., spoke about the importance of comprehensive, hospital-based cancer care.

"Providing our patients with comprehensive services under one roof and tailoring care through a multidisciplinary team is so beneficial to the patient, who can avoid the burden of traveling out of the area and can build a relationship with their doctors," said Dr. Sim. Dr. Sim joined Monmouth Medical Center in 2008 from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as chief of Radiation Oncology at their Basking Ridge site.

Following the roundtable discussion, many of the mayors took advantage of flu shots that were offered and they were invited to tour the hospital, visiting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Emergency Department.

About Monmouth Medical CenterLocated in Long Branch, N.J., Monmouth Medical Center, a Barnabas Health facility, along with The Unterberg Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, is one of New Jersey's largest teaching hospitals and has been an affiliate of Philadelphia's Drexel University College of Medicine for more than 40 years. From its earliest days, Monmouth Medical Center has been a leader in surgical advancement and has introduced many technological firsts to the region, including robotic surgery and other minimally invasive techniques. The hospital is routinely recognized by HealthGrades, the nation's largest premier independent health care quality company, for excellence in both emergency medicine and maternity care. U.S. News & World Reporthas recognized Monmouth as a regional leader in cancer, geriatrics, gynecology, neurology and neurosurgery. For more information on Monmouth Medical Center, visit www.barnabashealth.org/monmouth.